Cynthia Asbury, the embattled chief financial officer of Eureka Springs Hospital, has been fired.

Hospital commission chair Sandy Martin confirmed to the Eureka Springs Times-Echo that Asbury was terminated on the morning of Monday, Dec. 29.

Martin did not comment directly on the reasons for Asbury’s firing, saying in a text message on Tuesday, Dec. 30, that: “(W)e are continuing with our realignment plan.”

Four days after Asbury’s dismissal, the hospital announced the hiring of Doug Hoban as interim CFO on Friday, Jan. 2.

Long-running controversy

Martin confirmed Asbury’s termination after more than a year of controversy at the hospital, which came to light beginning with the November 2024 firing of then-CEO Angie Shaw.

Several former hospital employees have alleged a hostile work environment under the leadership of Asbury and human resources director Jodi Edmondson, who served as interim CEO until Tiffany Means assumed the CEO role in August 2025. In addition, Eureka Springs City Council members have questioned the hospital’s financial condition, with Martin and hospital officials saying there is no cause for concern.

In June 2025, the council voted unanimously to request specific financial information from the hospital commission — including balance sheets — with council member Rachael Moyer pointing out that the hospital’s bank balance declined by approximately $2.5 million from July 2024 to May 2025, at the same time the commission was reporting a net loss of $465,000 for the same period. Martin told the Times-Echo that the hospital’s bank balance and its income statements represented “two different base points and financial views.”

At the council’s July 14 meeting, Martin said the council had already been provided with balance sheets.

“We come to you this evening to publicly hand over documents that have been in your possession over three months,” Martin said. After reviewing the balance sheets provided by Martin, Moyer pointed out a discrepancy between the “cash and cash equivalents” listed on the latest balance sheet and the hospital’s actual bank balance. At the hospital commission’s July 25 meeting, Asbury reported an “adjustment journal entry” to update the line item for cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet.

Moyer said later that the adjustment “functionally shifted approximately $1.3 million from cash to accounts receivable.”

That resulted in the hospital reporting approximately $3 million in accounts receivable, according to Moyer, who said that number was “definitely historically high” for the facility. Moyer also questioned why no “bad debt” had been reported in 2025.

During a joint workshop of the city council and the hospital commission on Aug. 21, Asbury said that the hospital was using a new “sophisticated” system of trying to collect past due bills. Asbury told the commission that the new system had improved efficiency and that there had been no accounts returned from collections for the year.

At the council’s meeting on Sept. 8, Moyer said federal regulations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services require debts aged more than 120 days to be written off. Moyer said the lack of a bad-debt policy for the hospital was resulting in an inaccurate financial outlook.

“So, this speaks directly to the current financial status of the hospital,” Moyer said at the time. “I can think of two reasons why the hospital would continue to operate without a bad debt policy. One, they don’t know that they should have one, and they don’t understand the impact. Two, they know that when they do, it will significantly reduce the net revenue line and leave the financial outlook much less appealing than what we’re being told. But, either way, I think that’s negligence.”

Collection notices

More recently, there have been anecdotal reports of patients receiving collection notices for bills that they believed had already been settled.

Heather Wilson, who sits on the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission and has been outspoken in calling for a change in leadership in the hospital commission, wrote a letter to the commission, hospital administration and city council members in late December after receiving a letter from a collection agency that said Wilson owes the hospital $23.03 from a balance of $718 that was due on March 12, 2024. Wilson wrote that she had not visited the hospital in almost two years.

“This notice was the first communication I have received regarding any outstanding balance related to my care at Eureka Springs Hospital,” Wilson wrote. “Prior to this mailing, I received no invoice, statement, phone call or written notification indicating that a balance existed (I have already requested a written record of these items). I have not visited the hospital in almost two years, which makes the timing and nature of this notice particularly interesting.

“From a basic operational and patient-experience standpoint, it is unreasonable to expect payment for an obligation that was never communicated. Patients cannot resolve balances they are unaware of. Delayed billing that surfaces years after a visit suggests systemic breakdowns in billing processes, record management, or communication protocols, issues that understandably erode public trust in a healthcare institution.

“I will remit payment for the stated amount now that I have been made aware of it. However, I urge the Commission to reflect on the broader implications of this situation. Effective financial stewardship and patient-centered care require timely, transparent communication. Waiting years to notify patients of a balance is neither operationally sound nor consistent with best practices in healthcare administration.”

Wilson said she had seen Facebook posts from other individuals who received similar collection letters in the same week.

Performance Improvement Plan

Three days after the commission voted at a special meeting to fire Shaw — a move that resulted in an ongoing lawsuit alleging wrongful termination — the commission voted at one of three special meetings on Nov. 4, 2024, to place Asbury on a 60-day Performance Improvement Plan. A memorandum dated Feb. 17, 2025, and signed by Martin and Asbury said that Asbury had completed the improvement plan, demonstrating a “noticeable and consistent modification in behavior, style of communication and positive employee interaction.”

The document, obtained by the Times-Echo through an open-records request, stated that Asbury had “successfully accomplished all the goals” outlined in the Performance Improvement Plan.

In addition to modifying her behavior and style of communication, the memo said, Asbury met with department managers to clarify the role and responsibility of the CFO, established ongoing training and re-training, demonstrated exemplary collaboration and teamwork as part of the administrative team and met with Martin at least weekly to monitor progress. The memo said that new department heads “report positively” on Asbury’s teamwork and leadership.

Council ultimatum

Former hospital employees continued to speak out about what they described as a toxic work environment fostered by Edmondson and Asbury, however, prompting city council member David Avanzino to make a motion at the council’s meeting on March 10, 2025, to give the hospital commission “two weeks to make changes to their membership and their administration or else we start removing commissioners.”

The council voted unanimously in favor of Avanzino’s motion.

Mayor Butch Berry said March 13 that he was vetoing the council’s order because it was “inappropriate.” That same day, the hospital commission held a special meeting and went into executive session to discuss “employment, promotion, demotion, termination or discipline,” according to Martin. After meeting privately for approximately an hour, the commission returned to regular session and approved a motion of “no action taken.”

At a regular commission meeting on March 17, a letter from respiratory therapist Kristie Hamilton was read into the record during public comments. Hamilton, who worked at the hospital from December 2022 to July 2023, wrote that she reported the hospital to Medicare and Medicaid after a dispute with Asbury over billing procedures. According to Hamilton’s letter, she resigned from the hospital and noted in her resignation letter that she was leaving because of a toxic and hostile work environment. Hamilton wrote that Edmondson and Hamilton’s supervisor came to her office and informed her that her services were no longer necessary, rather than allowing her to work out her notice.

Praise from commissioner Later at the March 17 meeting, commissioner Kate Dryer credited Edmondson and Asbury with their work in responding to a November 2024 survey report from the Arkansas Department of Health that cited multiple findings of deficiencies and put the hospital in jeopardy of having its Medicare agreement terminated. Dryer also praised the work of Lana Mills, who at that time was the hospital’s director of clinical services.

“I know for sure that we would not be open still, if Jodi and Cynthia had not rolled their sleeves up over the last several months,” Dryer said. “I also know that if Lana had not come along, we would be probably closed down. You have done an incredible job, the three of you. … The public has, in my estimation, about 10 percent of all that’s going on. Someday, I hope very much that a hundred percent of what has taken place from mid-2023 to today will be out there for the whole world to see. It is my firm desire for every single stone to be unturned and innuendo and rumor and falsehoods — outright falsehoods — will cease.”

Mills’ employment was terminated less than six months later, with her personnel file indicating that her position was “eliminated.” According to the hospital’s website, Velvet Shoults now holds the title of “clinical nurse executive.”

When Shoults joined the hospital staff earlier in 2025, Martin told the Times-Echo that Shoults “declined a title – not her style.” That changed in July, when Edmondson introduced Shoults as the hospital’s new “clinical executive director.” Martin later confirmed that Shoults was assuming new responsibilities, saying that Mills, who was still listed as the hospital’s director of nursing and clinical services, “stays in place and reports to Velvet.”

Texts with commissioner

In November 2024, the Times-Echo reported that Asbury exchanged a series of text messages with then-hospital commissioner Barbara Dicks, who at one time served as the commission chair, regarding the complaints from hospital staff. The messages, which were not timestamped and did not indicate which messages were sent by whom, included references to recording conversations and an apparent reference to parking in an area on the hospital grounds where there was no security camera.

That same month, the Times-Echo reported that Dicks and then-commission chair Kent Turner had exchanged text messages about firing Shaw as early as August 2024 and also discussed other personnel issues by text — violations of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act — as well as meeting together with Asbury in private, also a FOIA violation. Dicks resigned from the commission at the request of Berry on Nov. 15, 2024, one day after the Times-Echo reported on her text messages with Turner. The Eureka Springs City Council voted unanimously on Jan. 27, 2025, to remove Turner from the commission.

Independent investigation

At that same meeting, Martin — who had replaced Turner as the commission chair before the council’s vote to remove Turner — defended Edmondson and Asbury.

“And speaking on behalf of the commission, we have total confidence, appreciation and respect for each of our current employees, including Jodi Edmondson and Cynthia Asbury,” Martin said at the Jan. 27. 2025, council meeting. “Did we make mistakes? Yes, and we own up to them. None were intentional, nor malicious. However, reputations were damaged, and that’s a crying shame.”

At the time, Martin said the commission would conduct an internal investigation regarding employee issues. During an April 7 joint workshop between the hospital commission and the city council, Martin said the commission planned to engage an independent firm to conduct an “independent investigation” into the allegations of a hostile work environment.

Brie Gibson, an Arkansas Municipal League attorney, had recommended in a March 17 email to Martin that the commission hire an outside agency or individual to investigate those allegations.

On June 24, in response to an inquiry from the Times-Echo, Martin said in a text message that bids for an outside investigation ranged from $16,000 to $22,000 “for the same scope of work our attorney did last year.”

Martin said the attorney, Little Rock-based Gabriel Mallard, would present a report “probably in August.”

In an April 4 email to the Times-Echo, however, Martin wrote that the commission had determined that Mallard’s investigation “should focus on the DOH state surveys,” adding that the commission “conducted internal investigations into employee issues.”

Mallard has not presented a public report regarding any investigation into personnel issues at the hospital. Martin said in a text message Wednesday, Jan. 7, that Mallard presented a report “to the commission,” later confirming that the report was presented during an executive session.

Martin said Mallard’s report “focused on issues pertaining to state survey and reported some employees were not doing their jobs.”

“I know for sure that we would not be open still, if Jodi and Cynthia had not rolled their sleeves up over the last several months.”

— Eureka Springs Hospital commissioner Kate Dryer, praising human resources director and interim CEO Jodi Edmondson and chief financial officer Cynthia Asbury at a March 17, 2025, commission meeting. Asbury was fired Dec. 29.